The Wolf and the Sheep, page 20
He stepped closer. “After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you treat me?”
“What have you done for me?” Maverick continued to place his body in front of me, lining up his frame so he protected me at all times. “When Mom died, you died too. You’re a ghost of the man you used to be. I used to be proud of you, used to look up to you. But now you’re heartless, hateful of everyone in this world because you lost the one person you loved. Lily and I don’t matter—”
Caspian lunged at Maverick, slamming his large body into his frame and landing a punch against his jaw. He used all of his energy to cause as much damage as possible, to make Maverick bleed and hurt.
Maverick took a few hits because he was shocked by his father’s savage attack. He fell back, his head about to hit the corner of the bottom stair.
Even though it would hurt, I fell and slid my body underneath him, using my thighs as a cushion so he wouldn’t crack his head open and bleed everywhere. But that put me in line with Caspian, easily accessible.
Caspian took advantage of my position and grabbed me by the neck, squeezing me so hard I couldn’t breathe right from the beginning.
Maverick recovered quickly and kicked his father off. Punch after punch, he planted his fists into his father’s body, turning into a beast with enough adrenaline to power a rocket. He slammed his fists into his father’s face and his stomach, driving him back to the other side of the room. Caspian’s face was battered by the time he collapsed on the ground, breathing hard as his son stood over him, blood on his knuckles.
Caspian raised his gaze and looked at his son, blood dripping from his mouth and his nose. Bruised and swollen, his face looked like he’d been stung by a swarm of hornets. He leaned against the wall as he looked at his son with pure disgust.
Maverick was still, waiting for his father’s next move.
Caspian slowly rose to his feet, finally showing the effect his age had on his body. He didn’t carry himself with strength, but defeat. But the look he gave his son showed the promise of war, of torture, of bloodlust. He sent Maverick a cold stare, as if he might continue the fight even if he lost. But then he turned around and walked off, moving with a slight limp and sagging shoulders.
Maverick held his position until his father was out of the house. He looked through the window and watched him get into his car and drive away. Once he was really gone, he released the breath he was holding and turned to me.
Now he looked even more furious with me.
Like he blamed me for everything.
23
Maverick
I sat in my office with a cigar in my mouth, absentmindedly puffing the smoke and letting it disappear from my mouth. There was a painting on the other side of the wall, of Paris in the early 1800s before it became industrialized. It was moody and dark, showing the mud after a bad storm. I didn’t pick out most of my artwork, but I’d chosen this one because it spoke to me.
I stared at it now, doing my best to think about nothing.
My neck was visibly bruised because of the way my father had strangled me. My face was tinted from the fists I took to the face. I looked like I’d gotten my ass kicked even though my father got the worst of it.
It was the only time I’d ever struck my father.
I didn’t feel good about it—even though I didn’t have a choice.
If I did nothing, he would have killed Arwen… Not that I should care.
She betrayed me, after all.
When my cigar burned out, I lit another one.
Didn’t give a shit if I got cancer.
My father and I didn’t have a good relationship, but this made us complete enemies. Now I had two wars to fight. I had to make sure Kamikaze didn’t come near Arwen, and I had to make sure my father didn’t kill her either.
Or did I?
My father was right when he said she breached the contract. She defied our wishes and took matters into her own hands. That was direct disobedience. I had every right to leave her.
Maybe I should.
The door opened, and she appeared in the doorway, apology in her eyes and concern in her stature. She searched my gaze for permission to enter the room.
She wouldn’t get it from me.
She stepped inside anyway and approached my desk, her hands together in a timid fashion. She was in jeans and a t-shirt, her dark hair pulled over one shoulder. Her face was free of makeup because she’d probably spent all afternoon thinking about the shit that had happened earlier in the day.
The longer I stared at her, the angrier I became.
She stared at the cigar in my hand, like she was too ashamed to meet my gaze. She kept her look there for nearly a minute before her eyes lifted to look into mine. Her blue gaze conveyed her sorrow, her obvious regret. “Maverick…I’m so sorry.” She took a deep breath like the words made her chest clench in pain.
Those words meant nothing to me.
“I wasn’t thinking. I just—”
“No, you weren’t.” I puffed on my cigar again.
“I just couldn’t let those women be tortured…”
“This is how I know you’re stupid.” I pulled the cigar out of my mouth and let the remaining smoke rise from my mouth as I spoke. “You have no grasp of an ecosystem. My father and I live in the same system. You manipulate one aspect, and it changes everything that surrounds it. You saved those two women—but now my father and I are enemies. You took away the one thing that mattered to him, and now he won’t stop until he kills you—and me.”
Her eyes dropped in regret.
“I want a divorce.” His voice was cold.
When her eyes lifted again, there was true terror in her gaze, like the idea of losing me was more than she could stand. She knew she needed me for everything, from shelter to protection. Without me, she was nothing.
I waited for her to argue, to beg me to change my mind.
But she didn’t. “Would that help the situation with you and your father?”
No, it probably wouldn’t make a difference. I smoked my cigar again.
When she knew I wouldn’t answer her, she didn’t press me. “I understand…”
The second I kicked her out of my house, the dogs would descend. Kamikaze would grab her and turn her into a slave, unless my father got to her first. He would just kill her, shoot her between the eyes. If I were her, I’d hope to run into my father first.
She stared down at her fingers as she gripped the edge of the desk. “I’m sorry, Maverick. I don’t regret saving those women, but I regret what I put you through. You don’t deserve to be treated like that by your own father. I know I’m the one to blame for this…but your father is the one who needs help. His response to the situation shouldn’t have been violence. He shouldn’t have marched to his son’s door with the intention of killing him. I know I triggered these events…but he’s the one who’s wrong.”
“That’s not how the real world works.”
“I know, but you should consider talking to your father. He clearly needs help…and he’s only becoming crazier.”
He became more barbaric every time I saw him. “Take the cash I gave you and go.”
She froze. “I gave it to the women…so they could disappear.”
This just kept getting worse and worse. “I’m not giving you another penny.”
“I wasn’t going to ask.”
“Good. Get out.” I didn’t want to see her ever again. I wanted this liability out of my house.
She lingered at my desk, her eyes downcast. Without me, she had nothing—and she knew it. In that moment, she probably understood she’d thrown away a great thing. She probably understood how much I did for her, how much I protected her. But my kindness had expired, and there was nothing she could do about it. “I’ll leave in the morning.”
I was hoping she would leave now, but I would take it.
She was still rooted to her spot in front of my desk. “When my father told me I had to marry you, I was furious. My whole life had been taken from me. But as I got to know you, I realized you were a good man…with a big heart. I started to care for you, admire you. I even started to see you as my friend. I’m sorry I betrayed you. That was never my intention. I just wanted to do the right thing. I didn’t realize how much it would cost you…and I apologize for that.”
Heartlessly, I stared at her with the burning cigar between my fingertips.
She waited another moment to see if I would say anything. But when I didn’t, she gave up and turned away. “Goodbye, Maverick.”
I watched her walk out the door, both disappointed and relieved by her departure. “Goodbye, Sheep.”
Lily sat across from me at the table in the dining hall. Other members of the rehab facility chatted with family members over dinner, pretending everything was normal even though they were battling addiction.
Lily took a few bites of her dinner but left most of it untouched. She was a pretty woman, but she looked sickly with the amount of weight she’d lost. She used to have beautiful, thick hair, but now it had thinned out from lack of nutrition. Her skin didn’t glow the way it used to. Now it looked just as pale as her eyes. “How are things with you?”
“Not good.” I hadn’t visited her in a while, which made me feel guilty. It made me feel even guiltier because I only came tonight because I needed someone to talk to. But then again, she forgot my birthday, so we were even.
“What’s wrong?”
I told her everything that had happened with Father.
Lily’s lifeless expression instantly changed. Horrified by every single aspect of the story, she was agitated. “What the hell is wrong with him? He’s even worse than I realized. How could Mom’s death make him so psychotic?”
I didn’t have an answer, and I was tired of guessing. “I’m divorcing her.”
Lily stared at me, her food abandoned and her eyebrow raised. “Why?”
“I can’t be married to someone I don’t trust.”
“You didn’t know her when you married her, so you obviously didn’t trust her then.”
But things had changed since our wedding day.
“What about the men who are after her? Won’t they get her?”
“Not my problem.”
“And you’re just okay with that?” she asked incredulously.
“If she wanted to stay married to me, she shouldn’t have betrayed me.”
“She didn’t betray you,” Lily argued. “She wanted to save those women, and I can’t fault her for that. How could Father possibly think that’s okay? You were okay turning the other cheek while those women were tortured?”
“No, but I didn’t have any other choice.”
“Well, Arwen obviously couldn’t live with that…and I don’t blame her. She obviously wasn’t aware of the repercussions at the time, but she did the right thing. Mom would be happy if she knew what Arwen did.”
Maybe. We would never know.
“Maverick, if you leave her, she’ll be raped and tortured too. You’re really okay with that?”
Arwen was a strong woman who didn’t take shit from anyone, but Kamikaze was a mutant. With his almost seven feet of height, she would have no chance against him—and he would probably be the first one to fuck her. She’d be subjected to a life she didn’t want, a life that made death preferable. And if Kamikaze didn’t get her first, then my father would…and he would execute her.
“I know you’re upset right now, but leaving her isn’t an option. You couldn’t live with yourself if something terrible happened to her. She didn’t betray you for her own gain. She did it to save those innocent people. Cut her some slack.”
“Now Father and I are enemies…and I should just forgive her?”
“You’re enemies because Father is batshit crazy. At some point in time, shit was going to hit the fan anyway. He’s so unstable that he can’t even think logically. Who kidnaps innocent women to rape them? And then who tries to murder their own son for saving them? He’s the problem—not her.”
I stared at the food, recognizing her clear logic.
“Honestly, I like this girl…and I think you do too.”
“I never said I liked her.”
“You said she broke your trust, which meant you trusted her in the first place. That’s impossible for someone like you.”
I hated the fact that my little sister was smarter than me.
“And if you trusted her at any point, she must mean something to you.”
I didn’t know what Arwen meant to me. I liked fucking her. I considered her to be a friend. When it came down to it, I’d picked her over my father and saved her life. It would have been easy for me to let him kill her. It would have fixed all my problems. But I’d protected her, not because of my promise, but because I wanted to.
Lily kept watching me. “Go home to your wife, Maverick. And hope that she’s still there.”
24
Arwen
I took the clothes Maverick paid for because he had no use for them. I may as well keep them, especially since my wardrobe was limited. All of my stuff fit in a single suitcase—reminding me how insignificant I was.
Once I was outside the gates, I had no idea what I would do.
I had nowhere to go.
Dante popped into my mind, but I had too much pride to ask him for help. He’d moved on to someone else. I wasn’t on his mind anymore. I could call up my recent lover and ask to spend the night, but that idea made me feel cheap.
It was the first time I was actually scared. Once I was on my own, men would be chasing me. Caspian would try to kill me. I was homeless, so I would be easy to find. I could probably get into the theater and sleep backstage, but that was an obvious place to track me to.
I hadn’t wanted to marry Maverick in the first place, but now I realized it was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
He was the man who took care of me.
But I threw that away when I saw those women. I did the right thing and protected the innocent—but I paid a price for it. If I could do it all over again, I probably would have done the same thing. I couldn’t live with that guilt—and neither could Maverick. My actions set off terrible repercussions, but there was no other option.
I sat on my bed with my suitcase against the wall. Maverick said I could stay until morning, but I wasn’t sure what the point of staying was. It would be easier to sneak into the theater now when people were there. I could stop by and say I forgot something but hide in a closet until everyone went home for the night. There were showers there as well as a couple of cots.
I could make a home there until I figured out what to do next.
It would be okay…right?
A knock sounded on my door before Maverick walked inside.
I glanced at him then turned away, unable to handle the disappointment in his eyes. When his father was strangling him to death, he’d given up like he wanted to die. But once my life was on the line, he did everything he could to protect me—even against his own father.
Maverick sat on the bed beside me, keeping a foot of space in between us.
I stared at the floor. “I’ve decided to leave now instead of waiting until morning…” I didn’t have a car because I gave it to Ramon’s wife and daughter. I couldn’t afford to waste money on a cab, so I’d have to walk if he wouldn’t give me a ride. I’d never felt so helpless in my entire life. I literally had nothing…except for a few hundred bucks.
Maverick was quiet. Maybe he was here because he had the same thought. He didn’t want me to be in his house a second longer. “Remember the time I left in the middle of the night to fix a broken pipe on the property?”
I only remembered it because some woman named Becky had made a peculiar entrance while we had breakfast. With her heels in hand, she kissed him on the neck and walked past me, not at all concerned that I was his wife. “Yes.”
“That was a lie.”
I turned to him, watching the side of his face.
“Your father had made a deal with a man named Kamikaze. Some kind of investment. He came to my front gates to collect you.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Said he would turn you into a sex slave to raise the money your father owed him.”
I’d been scared to survive on my own, but now I was terrified. This man would hunt me down and force me into prostitution. Now I wished I had a gun so I could blow my brains out. I’d rather die than be subjected to that torture.
“I wouldn’t give you up, so he offered to buy you from me.” He brought his hands together and stared at his palms. “I told him you weren’t for sale—at any price.”
I had been dead asleep, and Maverick kept me safe. He didn’t even tell me about it, probably because he knew it would disturb me. “Thanks for the heads-up…” Now I realized how much I needed Maverick, that he was the only thing standing in between me and torture.
“You won’t survive out there. If Kamikaze doesn’t get you, my father will. You won’t even last a week.”
My hands started to shake because I’d never been this scared in my entire life.
“So, I take back what I said… I’ll stay married to you.”
I turned to him, surprised he had changed his mind.
He rose to his feet again. “It would be a shame that you saved those girls but there’s no one to save you.” He headed to the door. “You broke my trust when you snuck around behind my back. You betrayed me when you took matters into your own hands. Don’t expect me to trust you again.” He opened the door.
I went after him. “Maverick.”
He stopped in front of the door. It took him a second to turn around, like he was considering ignoring me.
“Thank you for letting me stay…” If he’d kicked me out on the street, I would have been raped and killed. Changing his mind meant I got to live…and that meant he saved my life. “Without you, I wouldn’t have anything. And I realize that now more than ever. You’re a good man…and I hope I can earn your forgiveness someday.”
